Also according to Guardian

Daniel Fiott, head of the defence and statecraft programme at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy, has summarised the main points in X

90 references to “defence”. Key points:

👉🏻 defence industry too fragmented 👉🏻 too many capability duplicates 👉🏻 not investing in EU suppliers 👉🏻 common procurement needed 👉🏻 defence fuels growth 👉🏻 need more investment 👉🏻 integrate AI into defence 👉🏻 private finance And more.

RIP " Moonfish" 🙏🏻

Colonel Oleksiy “Moonfish” Mes was a fervent advocate of giving Ukraine the advanced fighters.

KYIV — Ukraine lost the first of its U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets during Monday’s massive missile and drone attack by Russia, killing the pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Mes, one of the country’s first to be qualified to fly the advanced fighters.

link

It’s always quite peculiar to see these comparisons. Bilateral is US and EU institutions, the UK, and then some European memberstates.
Though U.K. is not EU anymore It’s still a military ally and geograohically part of the European continent. Also, how much did European countries donate in It’s totality?

And this just came in : "opposition candidate Edmundo González on Monday announced that his campaign has the proof it needs to show he won the country’s disputed election "

ap link

In a way I don’t fancy giving guys like Trump and Orbán any platform, considering that we all know what they stand for, and what they have been doing. On the otherhand, we still need to deal with the consequences of their actions. So, here we are.

Wasn’t expecting it to be that fast. Anyhow, seems we’re migrating, check.

"Russian-based companies make up about half of the 61 entities added to the EU’s list Monday. In addition to the 19 Chinese companies, it also added nine from Turkey, two in Kyrgyzstan, one in India, one in Kazakhstan, and one in the United Arab Emirates.

" Russian-based companies make up about half of the 61 entities added to the EU’s list Monday. In addition to the 19 Chinese companies, it also added nine from Turkey, two in Kyrgyzstan, one in India, one in Kazakhstan, and one in the United Arab Emirates."

To be clear: “NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Monday that 23 of its 32 member states were expected to meet the alliance’s defense spending commitments this year. That is 13 countries more compared to last year’s data, and five more than an earlier estimate in February.”

"According to the commission’s economic forecast, France is at -5.5%, Italy is at -4.4% and Belgium is at -4.4% and will breach this deficit limit in 2024.

Spain is at exactly -3.0%. Austria, Finland, Estonia, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia also have deficits that are too high according to the rules."

Ed:

Thx alot, it’s way more complex than I thought. So getting a stream will be difficult too, as it’s not public anymore. Will try check and see what can be found. Sounds interesting

Before checking this doc out; could you pls give more context?

Under the plan, the EU will apply five levels of tariffs. EV manufacturers that cooperated with Brussels investigators will face a tariff of 21%, while those who did not will be hit with the top tier of 38.1%.

SAIC faces the top tariff, Geely faces a tariff of 20%, while a 17.4% duty will be applied to BYD brands, which include the Dolphin and Seal cars launched in the EU last year.

It is understood that Tesla cooperated with the EU and may initially face the 21% tariff. The EU indicated this could be revised next month to its own individually calculated duty rate after assessing evidence submitted by the US company.

Explainer abbreviation: NCSC (Dutch) National Cyber Security Centre

" Thousands of people rallied in Budapest on Saturday as a political newcomer led a push to mobilise voters against Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, ahead of European elections on Sunday.

“We defeated apathy,” declared Péter Magyar, a former government insider who switched sides and launched an opposition movement, as he stood in front of a vast crowd which filled the capital’s Heroes’ Square."

According to national polls, the PVV would have now ca. 48 out a total of 150 seats in the Dutch House of Representatives; so a 32%.

In this exit poll, PVV won 7 out of a total of 31 European Parliament seats, or 22,5%.

On the other hand PVV went from 1 to 7 seats in the EP. A huge far-right surge was/ is expected for the EP election. But in the Netherlands, it didn’t turn out as high as was predicted.

This whole “thing” is one giant rabbit hole. Getting from bad, worse and then ,“the worst”. I hope we near the end of it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we are we only halfway establishing the ammount of foreign infiltrations and influences. Good they’ve gotten busy with it, finally.

Yes, I forgot Germany has a “diehard” constitution. Tnx for explaining this aspect. That would make it a third argument, or need of an " extra A-okay" mandate.

I also remembered, that big eavesdrop hack scandal while the Taurus issue was internally being discussed with the military brass and ministers. Having that scandal and the discussion " in the open" hasn’t helped either.

Their basis for holding back was Ukraine might use them to strike targets in Russia, and that cannot be allowed…

That was one argument, the other one was that a (German) ground force maintainance crew & training & encoding experts and stuff would be needed. Regarding sending maintainance crews, the opinions seem more and more positive of late. I’ll reckon we’ll might see Taurus , and hopefully more of it’s friends, being send. Then again, it will also depend on the outcome of the ( EU) elections this year.

Ofc Ukraine may defend itself! Anyway, here their quote:

“We think that we should allow them to neutralize military sites where missiles are fired, from where … Ukraine is attacked,” Macron said at a joint press conference alongside the German chancellor following talks at Schloss Meseberg near Berlin, the official state guest house of the German Federal Republic.

At the same time, he stressed that “we should not allow them to touch other targets in Russia, and obviously civilian capacities.”